BETHANY, Okla. — Southern Nazarene cruised to its third straight 3-0 sweep as they picked up the win over East Central (25-21, 26-24, 25-10).
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The Crimson Storm (8-5, 4-1 GAC) had 37 kills and hit .218. Ten different players recorded kills and were led by
Lexie Matthews with eight,
Elyse Berlin with seven, and
McKayla Benner with five.
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Berlin had 24 assists and seven kills while hitting .583 (7-0-12). She also had eight digs.
Abbey Bell had 15 digs and
Kaitlyn Vought had a pair of aces to go with four total blocks on the evening. Â
Makenna Hunter and
Courtney Bowie also had four blocks as well.
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The Storm as a team had nine blocks, which tied the season high, and did not get blocked the entire night. SNU also held East Central to a .039 clip.
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It was a tight, back and forth battle early in the first set with 11 ties and four lead changes. Neither team led by more than three until SNU broke an 18-18 tie with a Berlin kill to start a 7-3 run to take the first set. After SNU opened with a comfortable 12-8 lead in the second set, the Tigers (4-11, 2-1 GAC) came back quickly by scoring seven of the next eight points to take the lead at 15-13. The Crimson Storm responded though with an 8-2 run capped by a Matthews kill, one of her six in the set, to lead 21-17. Southern Nazarene picked up set point at 24-21, when ECU scored three straight to tie it at 24, but back-to-back kills by Vought and
McKenna Qualls gave the second set victory to SNU.
In the third set, SNU came out firing with a 9-1 advantage, and continued its domination as they pushed the lead to 14-5. The Storm ultimately finished the set with a 25-10 victory and a sweep of the Tigers. ECU hit -.308 in the set as SNU put it away.